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Definition Of The 1950s Civil Rights Movement

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My definition of the 1950s' Civil Rights Movement is a time when African Americans began fighting to gain the same rights as White Americans, such as voting, employment, and to be free from racial discrimination; some of the same rights former slaves fought for in the 1860s. In 1865, the former slaves did not feel truly free. After the Civil War, Johnson's Reconstruction plan was a adaptation of the black codes. The black codes were a law passed to regulate the lives of former slaves. These laws limited the former slaves to certain rights such as “legalized marriage, ownership of property, and limited access to the courts” (Give Me Liberty: An American History Vol. 2, Foner, 2017, pg. 580). The black codes; however, did not allow the former slaves to participate juries, militias, vote, and to either sue or testify against white people. The black codes required former slaves to sign yearly contracts with their former owners. Failure to comply would result in being arrested and forced to work for their former owners. The states did not allow former slaves to have certain jobs, own land, and the children of former slaves could be sent, by a judge, to work for their former owners without the consent of a parent. Eventually, the black codes were recognized as an infringement on the free labor principles. The black codes made it clear that slavery was not totally abolished and was just another form of slavery. As a solution to the Reconstruction's lack of progress, the former

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